Michael E. Schatman, Ph.D. has practiced as a clinical psychologist in the area of pain management for over 20 years. He is a Clinical Consulting Psychologist in Bellevue, Washington. PainEDU interviewed him in 2006 at the time of the publication of his textbook "Ethical Issues in Chronic Pain Management". His second book, co-edited with Alexandra Campbell, Ph.D., published by Informa Healthcare, “Chronic Pain Management: Guidelines for Multidisciplinary Program Development” will be released in late July, 2007.

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Questions

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Evelyn Corsini:

What led you to produce this book?

Michael E. Schatman, Ph.D.: The message of this book is that multidisciplinary management of chronic pain is cost effective and it works, but many organizations providing this kind of treatment have closed or are closing for financial reasons. Instead of providing support to multidisciplinary pain management programs, technology has taken over, and financial support is going to interventional techniques which in the long run have less effective outcomes. Dr. Alexandra Campbell and I developed the outline for the book and were able to recruit many national experts to write for it, believing it was necessary to send a strong message to insurance companies, hospital administrations, and the medical community as a whole that multidisciplinary treatment needs to continue to be supported.

Many of my most respected colleagues working in the area of multidisciplinary pain treatment, have actually left the United States to work in other countries where their efforts are more appreciated and reasonably funded. This is a tragic loss for people suffering from chronic pain conditions. We believe that insurance companies can change their thinking, and that is why we have wanted this book to be published. The first goal of the book is to get the word out to the insurance companies and hospitals that multidisciplinary pain management needs to be brought back; the second goal is to provide instructions on how to put together a multidisciplinary team; and the third goal is to develop strategies to promote reimbursement for multidisciplinary pain management.

EC: Who are among the authors who wrote chapters for the book?

MS: We were fortunate to find pain experts who recognized the importance of this topic and were willing to write for the book. Among the distinguished authors are: Jane Ballantyne, M.D., Bill H. McCarberg, M.D., John D. Loeser, M.D., Richard Guyer, M.D., Steven P. Stanos, D.O, Ray Tait, Ph.D., Alan Lebovits, Ph.D., Dennis Turk, Ph.D., and Robert J. Gatchel, Ph.D. These authors, in spite of their own expertise in their fields, wrote about why their specialties in isolation do not work as a panacea for chronic pain.

EC: What educational issues in pain management concern you?

MS: We believe in the multi-modal approach to pain management and that there is no one silver bullet that solves all of the complex sequelae of chronic pain. We are concerned that there is discord among pain experts about the way we should proceed, rather than working together to develop an evidence basis for all the health care professionals who work in the field of pain management. For example, we are concerned by the passionate discord between the interventional pain specialists and the folks who work in rehabilitative medicine. We believe that physiatrists have great ability to treat pain and suffering, and have an ethical obligation to do so; unfortunately the reality for them is, why listen to a patient when you can perform a procedure and receive better reimbursement?

The bottom line is that the successful management of chronic or complex pain conditions lies in the ability to provide, as well as coordinate, the many different facets of treatment approaches that are often necessary to achieve the best patient outcome possible. This text lays out the strategies to show that this can be done in an efficient and cost effective way.